Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1887-05-07
Music Hath Charms

IlOugn the DANNY air OF spIlug,
with its scent of wild flowers and
blossoming fruit trees, does not yet
blow to chase away all traces OF the
long winter; though the trees and
shrubs are bare and the brown
still cling to the willow and
birch, there is music in the air, mu-
sic everywhere. the music that is
heard only in the spring. Out in
the woods the piercing cry of the
bluejav is no longer the only sound;
hundreds of warblers are busily
building a homestead wherein TO
rear their families, and one can dis
tinguish the sweet thrilling note Of
the bluebird, the exultant whistle of
the redbreast, the iharp, shrill call
of Robert O Lincoln, and the loud,
demonstrative echo of the hooking
bird. They have all come, and very
soon lovers may hear the melancholy
cry of the whip-poor-will.
But in the city, too, the music has
begun. 1t is the period of musical
festivity, when the ambitious song
stress, who has been improving her
voice all the winter, steps forth up
on the stage before an admiring au-
dience to take it by storm when the
director dislocates his arm in his
frantic manipulatory exercise with
the baton when the concert soloist
is very to burst dozen veins
in his anxiety to give the people the
benefit of his genius when fiddle.
strings snap and the full swell of the
chorus scars up in an harmoni-
Gus concord of sound, while
the audience sits entranced
and inthe pauses exchanges opinions
on the divine sweetness of Schubert
the magniicence of Hayden, the
substituting beauty Of Beethoven,
the splendor Mozart, and the mani
acal fury of Wagner that drove poor
Louis of Bavaria into insanity.
Ard when the enchantment is over
and the spell broken, and the listen
ers are walking home or having the
realities of life thrust upon them
in q commonplace street car, in the
mind Of everyone there turks a dim
suspicion that the familiar music
contained in paddy Daffy's Cart"
"Cricket on the Hearth warrior
Bold" etc., has much more charm
than all the oratorical compositions
of Handle and Hayden or the fiery
ont re IF No omar
And there is other music, besides
to tell of spring. Now does the en-
terprising home singer open all her
windows and pour out of them, for
the benefit of everybody who must
hear, the melodious waves of her
voice; the interchangeable organ grin
der grinds out of his instrument Of
torture invented by Alba of Spain
for the subjugation of the Neither
lands, quaint old tunes that we all
have heard sometime-"The sweet
Bye and Bye" and dashes without
warning from that unto Rouget de
Lisle's Marseillaise, varying the
theme again by doing out "My
Grandfathers Clock"
Soon, too, shall resound the soft,
tender tones of the circus calliope,
which weakens such fond memories.
The circus calliope swamps an old
proverb with its pillows of sound.
Music may have charms to soothe
the savage beast, but that evolved
from the steam pipes of the circus
calliope has widely different effect
on the domestic horse; so much
that patient animal has been seen TO
attempt the acrobatic feat Of stand
ing on the point of its tail when
under the influence Of the instru.
ment.
There is music everywhere, and
everybody should join in the univer-
sal jubilee and sing with the German
poet:
''But will up and away, love,
My harpsicord in my hand,
And sing like the birds in the forest,
And wander from land to land"
GTnDhic SpufeneI